“I’d been looking for one for quite a while,” Glenn Still, of Laguna Hills, says of the 1956 Ford Thunderbird he bought five years ago as a work in progress. “I knew a fella who had started a (Thunderbird) project and had passed away. Another friend bought it and was going to restore it. He’s got like six of them so I asked, ‘Have you thought about selling it?’”

Still, 80, says he was attracted to the classic two-seater by “the styling and the value – it’s a car that will retain its value.” Ford produced the vintage two-seat T-Birds for just three model years: 1955-57.

The friend agreed to sell, but had disassembled the car for repainting. That didn’t bother Still, however.

“I was an engineer for Ford and have done other cars,” he says. “It didn’t need that much to finish it. It just needed things put back on more than anything else.”

The car is equipped with most factory options. “The only thing it doesn’t have is a soft top,” Still says. The cars came with a removable hardtop; a soft top was optional.

“It drives fine,” Still notes. “It’s a typical ’56 car, the way they drove in that time. It’s a toy, not a daily driver.” He adds that he plans to “just keep it. I think I have a couple of sons and grandsons that will have their eye on it eventually.”

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